1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telecommunications system for providing subscriber features and, in particular, to the illustration and/or modification of intelligent network (IN) subscription using a graphical manager.
2. Description of Related Art
As stored program-controlled (SPC) switching systems have evolved, a wide variety of useful features have been developed to extend the communication capabilities such systems provide. Such services or features include call forwarding, "800" or toll free services, call screening, etc. Initially, all hardware and software modules required for providing a particular subscriber feature were placed and executed within a particular telecommunications exchange serving the service requesting subscriber terminal. As a result, each time a new subscriber feature or service was introduced, each and every one of the associated telecommunications exchanges inconveniently and inefficiently needed to be serviced and updated to support the service.
With the development and improvement of sophisticated telecommunications applications, the telecommunications industry has adopted the term "intelligent network" (IN) to denote a concept and architecture for providing vendor-independent and network-independent interfaces between the service logic and the transmission and switching system of a multi-enterprise telecommunications network. The goals of the IN are to centralize the service execution in a control node within a telecommunications network in order to provide rapid definition, testing and introduction of new services as well as the modification of existing services. IN also provides greater flexibility in the design and development of new services in a multi-vendor environment with shorter lead time, and standard network interfaces.
The basic concept behind IN is to move the "intelligence" out of each local exchange or Service Switching Point (SSP) and centralize the services providing the intelligence in a Service Control Point (SCP). By utilizing different combinations of basic building blocks, known as Service Independent Blocks (SIBs), a number of different Service Script Logics (SSLs) can be conveniently created. A specific IN service is then further developed and provided to telecommunications subscribers by utilizing (i.e., linking) one or more of the SSLs. As a result, utilizing subscription data associated with a particular subscriber, a number of SSLs are sequentially executed to provide the desired IN service.
Even with the centralization of IN services and subscription data within an associated SCP, reviewing and modifying IN subscription data associated with a particular subscriber within the existing IN system is still inconvenient and cumbersome. Subscription data are formatted in computer and/or application readable format and are difficult to read and understand. Furthermore each SSL incorporating the relevant subscription data only knows the identity of the next SSL that needs to be invoked. During run-time, each SSL executes the associated SIBs and then passes the control over to the next known SSL. Because the linked SSLs are executed in a chain-link-list fashion, where each SSL only knows the identity of the next SSL, it is difficult to obtain an overview of all of the associated SSLs. Unless a linking of all of the associated SSLs is manually performed, a service provider is unable to illustrate the association of a plurality of SSLs in a more readable and user-friendly format. Manual linking is tedious and inefficient. Moreover, since interpreting subscription data and their associated SSLs is difficult, making changes to the existing IN services and subscription data is further error-prone and time consuming. Accordingly, there is a need for a mechanism to interface a user with the serving IN network to enable the user to review and modify the existing IN services more efficiently and user-friendly.